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Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections

Among the great contributions of Buddhism to the universal ideal of compassion is the bodhisattva, one who delays an already attained salvation until all other beings are themselves released from the Wheel of Life. This beautiful sandstone bodhisattva is a sculptural embodiment of the conception of compassion, produced at the height of the Gupta dynasty in the traditional Buddhist heartland of North India. It represents Avalokiteshvara, a bodhisattva closely associated with the Amitabha, the Buddha of the Western Paradise, who is represented in the headdress. The lower legs and arms of the figure are missing, but the right arm and hand probably hung down, lightly holding a falling piece of drapery, while the left hand held the stem of the lotus still remaining on the damaged halo. The downcast eyes, "bee-stung" lower lip, bow curves of the upper lip, and smooth, clinging drapery of the elegant and slender body are all contributions of the Sarnath school to what became classic Buddha and bodhisattva types, models that had vast influence in the Buddhist art of East Asia. Sherman E. Lee, from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections (1995), p. 49.

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